Pediatric Eye Exams at Trend Eye Care in Philadelphia, PA

Being able to see world clearly isn't just an amazing experience for your children -- it's also critical for their safety, physical coordination, mental development and academic achievement. Eyesight must develop just as other parts of the body and brain do during the formative years of childhood, so you need to make sure any eye function errors, eye health issues or vision problems are diagnosed and dealt with. Here at Trend eye Care, our eye doctors are proud to provide comprehensive pediatric eye exams for Philadelphia's kids.

When Should Your Children Get Their Eyes Checked by Optometrists?

A baby's first six months are fuzzy ones, visually speaking. That's because newborns haven't yet developed some of the basic eye functions that make focus and object tracking possible. By the age of 6 months, the basic eye functions should have established established themselves, which is why the American Optometric Association recommends that a child's first eye exam be administered at this age. The second eye exam should occur at 3 years of age, by which point our eye doctors can interact verbally with your children and learn more about exactly how they're seeing. The third pediatric exam should be performed around age 6, or whenever your child is ready to enter school, so we can catch refractive errors that create extra difficulties in reading, writing and studying (and may even convey the wrong impression of a learning disability).

During the school years, most children should receive an eye exam every two years. Annual eye exams may be recommended if a vision problem requires our optometrists to review the child's corrective lens prescription from year to year.

Pediatric Eye Exam Procedures at Our Philadelphia Optometry Clinics

A typical pediatric eye exam involves a number of tests and evaluations. Our optometrists will check such basic eye health and function issues as:

How well the pupils respond to light

The ability to fixate on an object and follow it with the eyes

An infant's reactions to striped cards as opposed to blank cards (preferential looking)

Visual inspection of eye alignment to detect issues such as strabismus

Eye dominance, with cover tests to check for "lazy eye" (amblyopia)

Focusing ability at different distances

Eye teaming for three-dimensional vision, using a testing technique called random dot stereopsis

Peripheral vision, noting when a child notices an object entering his field of vision

Vision testing for refractive errors, using eye charts showing either shapes or letters

If our optometrists find an eye health or eye function issues, we will recommend prompt treatment as needed to correct it. Many childhood eye issues respond well to vision therapy, while refractive errors can be corrected with eyeglasses. But it all starts with the pediatric eye exam -- so call either of our Philadelphia optometry offices to schedule one!